while you’re at it: fall compost care

WHILE YOU’RE AT IT TUCKING IN THE GARDEN, the compost pile could use some TLC, too. Perhaps sticks and stones won’t break your bones, but they need to be screened from finished compost before you incorporate it into beds (that’s my wheelbarrow-top compost screen, left). In fact, the whole heap could use a turning and a tidying now. Remember the drill?

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my compost pile will be two years old next spring when i figure it will be ready to spread. it is a nice mixture of browns, leaves, and greens, mostly lawn that i scalped to make my victory (as in obama) garden. i think that after i rake and pile my leaves this fall and add some more scalping (need more garden room), i will invest in one of those fancy chipper/shredders, and shred all of my compost in order to accelerate composting. the chipper could also attack mucho brush that has grown during the somnalescence of the prior owner. i was looking at the mighty mac, and would be interested in any feedback from mighty mac, dr or other owners.

Forty feet of compost…I’m jealous. I’m just starting to spread mine around this week. I don’t use any special bins but I take up two areas, one especially for shredding the leaves and pruning debris. It really is black gold for the garden.

We have a rather large chipper that will do branches up to about 2″ diameter. I love doing the leaves in it too, they make a great mulch. Margaret, your screen is just like the one Pete made and they do work great. We’re lucky to have a municipal site right across the street from us where we are able to get free mulch, compost, and other salvageable plant material from city crews. Last year I did all my window box and planter holiday greenery for free from trimmings, and they were prettier than ever!

@Chris: I have so much raw debris that I just heap it up and wait for it to slowly degrade. Ideally I would pre-chop (shredder, or cut up the really large bits with my shears) but oy vey. A friend uses his mower and runs over piles of raked-up leaves to speed things. SO many ways to speed it (or just be lazy and wait years like I do, a luxury when the heap is bigger than the house…there’s always some finished stuff down under it).

I know some gardeners who stockpile browns and greens and then make a pile, but we just throw everything on as it comes. That means the pile is pretty heavy on food scraps during the winter, but they’re frozen food scraps. In spring there will be a lot of brown clean up stuff, so I guess it all evens out in the end.

just to follow up on kathy, i know that i can’t put food scraps out on the open compost pile as i would attract bears, raccoons, etc here in NE columbia county; instead i put kitchen scraps in an enclosed tumbler.

still no word on margaret’s politics. that’s one smart gardenblogger we have here…

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Welcome! I’m Margaret Roach, a leading garden writer for 25 years—at ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ ‘Newsday,’ and in three books. I host a public-radio podcast; I also lecture, plus hold tours at my 2.3-acre Hudson Valley (NY) Zone 5B garden, and always say no to chemicals and yes to great plants.